A story by Eri!

Here's a great story from Eri. You really feel like you're there!


chapter 1


BEFORE SCHOOL.

I run through the door and everyone gasps.  I mean everyone. Even Puck, my
best friend, stares with his mouth gaping.  I keep running and stop at

my locker.  I twist the number lock to my combination and throw my stuff
in. I climb inside and sit down on the metal bottom. Everyone is still

staring.

Alice, my sister, comes over and looks puzzled.

"Tylar!", she whispers,"Where were you? You're over-" she checks her watch-
"you're over four hours late!"

"So what." I whisper back, while shutting my customized locker door.

"So what?! It' s halfway through lunch!", she says. "All the teachers are
looking for you!"

Puck races over right before I slam the locker door shut.  "You need your
sketch pad for art class in -" he checks his watch "- in 15 minutes!"

"Why don't I have a watch?", I moan while twisting the lock to '274318'.

 "I'll get you one for your birthday." Puck says reassuringly.

"But Puck, that's in July, five months from now, in the summer!  You don't
need a watch in the summer!"

"Good point."

"There's four months of school left! I can't get to school four hours late
for four months!"

"You can borrow mine," Puck says with a smirk, "because I always get to
school on time, and you can just tell me what time classes are."

"Very funny." I say. "But can I still borrow it until summer?"

"Sure." He says, handing it to me. "Now lets get to the cafeteria."

* * *

Little Red Riding Hood comes over and asks with a smirk; "You having fun
sharing lunch with your ... boyfriend?"

"Like you think you're so great." I mutter.

"Excuse me?" Red says.

"Nothing."

"It better be nothing."

"Don't listen to her," my friend Goldilocks says, sitting down beside me,
"she's just trying to make everyone think you're scared."

"I know Locks, but what if she means it?"

"Trust me. She doesn't." Puck says.

"Okay, good." I say fluttering my wings.

I take a bite of my sandwich.  Puck with his chicken nuggets, and Locks
with her Spaghetti.

"Eww!" We all exclaim in unison. "This is gross!"

We all take refreshing big sips of 'Blast', the new favorite soda.

"Ahh." I say, totally refreshed.

"Ditto." They say.

From now on, I am making my lunch at home.

"5 minutes 'till art," I say, checking 'my' watch.

"I hope we don't get another sub." Locks says.

"Me too." I say.

Me 3," Puck says.







chapter 2
WALKING TO ART.

As we walked to class I noticed two boys staring at me.  I glare, and they
start to whistle and pretend to be looking at the clock that's  beside

me.

"Can you blame them?" My friend Snow says. "I mean, they're pretty dumb to
like you."

"Uh, thanks alot." I say.

"No, I mean they're dumb to think that you're open to boys."

"Because we're only 12?" My other friend Briar asks.

"Prob'ly." I answer.

We walk in and head to the 3 seats at the back, like we usually do.  But
today,  Sabrina and Daphne Grimm plus their friend Evalynn were sitting

there.

"Well well well.  Look who took our spots." Briar says moving closer.

"We can move if you want," Sabrina says.

"Oh thanks Sabrina, but it's fine. We'll sit in the front." I say, shooting
Briar a look.

We walk towards the front.  "Briar! Sabrina's a year younger than us!" I
say.

"Sorry."

We sit down and unzip our backpacks.

"Shoot!  I forgot my eraser and pencil!"  Snow says.

"It's fine," I say, "I always keep a spare pencil in my bag."

"And I have 2 erasers." Briar says as we hand her the stuff.

"Thanks." She says as Mr. Skencacer walks broadly through the door.

"Shh." Briar whispers.

He strides towards his desk.

"Today, class, we are going to draw the scenery.  To preform this action,
we must go outside with the clipboards supplied on your desks." We

glance at the desks, pick up the clipboards, grab our stuff and line up at
the door as he counted down from ten.

He hands out papers and we walk towards the school front doors.

* * *

"I like your drawing." Briar says as she leans over to get a better look.

"Thanks.  I like yours too."  I say glancing at her drawing of trees
swaying with the sun partly hidden by the wisps of clouds.  Her's is so
much

better.  Mine is just a simple sketch of the academy.  Snow's is better
too.  Her's is of our magical playground including the floating swingset

and the talking See-saw.

 "Okay class! Time to go inside!" Mr. Skencacer booms.

As we march in I see those same 2 boys eyeing me.

I look at them in a nausiating way.

They start whistling again.
I groan.

We walk back in class and hand in our drawings.

"Now we are going to draw who is beside us." He says.

Now it's Snow's turn to groan.  "I have to draw Nerdy Nickie." She whispers
to me.

"I'm willing to change spots with you," I say.

"No, it's fine." She replies.

***

My drawing turns out to be good, but Briar's ears are a little big.

I look at her's, and it's about the same as mine on a scale of 1 to 100.
 It's about a 69.

Snow's turns out to be pretty bad. Well actually, that's just how Nerdy
Nickie looks.




chapter 3
I grab my bag, run through the door and race to the girl's restroom.  As
I'm running I pull out my purple elastic and let my long, red hair fall

loose around my elbows.  I run through the door signed "Girls" and stick
myself infront of the mirrors.  I comb my fingers through my tangled

hair, pull it to the top of my head, and wrap the elastic around it.  I
leave and rush through the twisting hallways, bumping into my twin sister.

"Tylar!" She says, obviously annoyed, "watch where you're going!"

 "Can we switch?" I say.

"Um... ok. But just for one period. My next class is Math. What's yours?"
She asks."

"My next is ELA.  Yay! I love math!"

"And I looooove ELA!!"

"Perfect!" I say.

We walk to our trading spot, The Janitor's Closet.

I take my hair out, she puts hers in. We trade clothes and Tote bags,
phones and cuffs.

I look through the peephole. The coast is clear. I walk out of the closet,
looking both ways, to make sure it's clear.

I peek back inside the closet. There is Emma,(dressed as me) reading her
book.

I drag her out and put her bookmark in her book, the close it.

"Aww! I was just getting to the good part!" She says.

"We gotta get to classes!" I say.

"Fine." She says peeking in her book again.

 Soon I walk in to Math dressed as Emma, and no one seems to notice except
for Emma's friends, as they always do.  We've only been caught once,

and that was a couple years ago. We were ten and we attempted to switch for
the whole day, but I accidentally let something slip at home about how

Snow and Briar wanted me to come over.

"Tylar? Why did you switch?", Emma's friend Jack whispers as I slip in to
the seat beside him.  "I like math and she likes English Language Arts.

Actually I don't really know." I whisper back.

"What do your friends think?", Prince (Ironic, isn't it?), another one of
Emma's friends asks.

"Well, actually I don't really know," I admit.  "I wish I had a twin to
switch with," Emma's friend Gretel says while looking up from tying her
runners.

We snap back to attention as soon as Emma's math teacher Ms. Flora
fluttered to the front of the class.

More art from Eva and hatlover!

A poem: The Banyan Tree

Pinkprincess wrote this poem. We love it, especially the last line.

The Banyan Tree

Once upon a time in my garden, loved by me,
By seeing which garden I always became glee,
With its wide spread branches and dark colored leaves,
There stood a magnificent Banyan Tree.

From the time I was young I saw it grow,
But who planted it I didn't know,
Although it protected me in summer from the sun
And in winter from the snow.

The Banyan Tree was a world in itself.
I was a part of it myself.
Many birds and small animals lived in it,
And it bore their weight all by itself.